José María Eyzaguirre
José María Eyzaguirre Echeverría (23 July 1911 – 27 October 1989) was a Chilean lawyer and judge who served as president of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 1978.
Early life and education
Eyzaguirre was born in Santiago, the son of José María Eyzaguirre Gandarillas and María Echeverría Vial.
He attended St. Ignatius College, Santiago and subsequently studied law at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. He qualified as a lawyer on 6 December 1933.
On 28 November 1935, he married Ana Sara García de la Huerta Hurtado, with whom he had five children.
Judicial career
Eyzaguirre entered the Chilean judiciary in 1935 as a first officer in the secretariat of the Supreme Court of Chile. In 1941, he became a court reporter at the Court of Appeals of Santiago, and served in the same capacity at the Supreme Court from 1947 to 1951. In 1948, he served as a civil attaché at the Chilean Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
He was appointed a justice of the Court of Appeals of Santiago in 1951, where he remained until 1960, when he became a justice of the Supreme Court. He served as president of the Supreme Court from 1975 to 1978.
Eyzaguirre was also a member of the Constitutional Court of Chile from 1981 to 1989. He served as president of the Constitutional Court from 1985 to 1989, succeeding Israel Bórquez and being succeeded by Luis Maldonado Boggiano.
He retired from the judiciary on 25 April 1989. A few months later, on 27 October, he died in the commune of Providencia in Santiago.
Foreign honours
Grand Cross of the Order of the Southern Cross (1980)